Megyn Marie Kelly (born November 18, 1970) is an American journalist, political commentator and former corporate defense attorney. From 2004 to 2017, she worked for Fox News. On January 3, 2017, she announced her departure from Fox News and announced she will be joining NBC News. Starting June 4, 2017 she will host a Sunday night news magazine program titled Sunday Night with Megyn Kelly. From October 2013 to January 2017, during her career at Fox News, Kelly hosted the eponymous The Kelly File. She previously hosted America Live, and prior to that, co-hosted America's Newsroom with Bill Hemmer. From 2007 to 2012, the two reporters hosted Fox News Channel's New Year's Eve specials, "All American New Year". She was included in the 2014 Time list of the 100 most influential people. Kelly married Daniel Kendall, an anesthesiologist, in 2001. The marriage ended in divorce in 2006. In 2008, she married Douglas Brunt, who was then president and CEO of the cybersecurity firm Authentium, and who became a full-time writer and novelist. They have three children, born in 2009, 2011 and 2013. Politically, Kelly identifies as an independent, and has voted for both Democrats and Republicans. On October 12, 2016, Kelly stated in a segment with Fox News commentator Julie Roginsky on her show that she is a lifelong Catholic.
Kelly was born in Champaign, Illinois, to Edward Kelly, who taught education at the State University of New York at Albany, and Linda (née DeMaio), a homemaker. She is of Italian and German descent on her mother's side and Irish descent on her father's. Kelly's father died of a heart attack when she was 15 years old. Kelly attended Tecumseh Elementary School, in DeWitt, New York. At age 9, her family moved to the Albany, New York, suburb[10] of Delmar, where she attended Bethlehem Central High School. She obtained an undergraduate degree in political science from Syracuse University in 1992 and earned a J.D. from Albany Law School in 1995. Kelly was an associate in the Chicago office of law firm Bickel & Brewer LLP, during which time she co-wrote an article for the American Bar Association's journal, Litigation, called "The Conflicting Roles of Lawyer as Director". She later joined Jones Day for nine years, where one of her clients was the credit bureau Experian.
In late 2016, Kelly was alleged to be actively considering other news networks aside from Fox News, since her contract was months away from expiring. In January 2017, The New York Times reported that she would leave Fox News for a "triple role" at NBC News in which she would anchor and host her own daytime program and in-depth Sunday night news show, along with taking part in the network's political and major news event coverage. It was reported that Kelly's new daytime program would be a replacement for the third hour of NBC's morning show Today, Today's Take. She departed Fox News on January 6, 2017, after the last episode of The Kelly File was aired. In January 2017, People quoted an unspecified source that Kelly remains under a non-compete clause with Fox until July 2017 and that she may start working at NBC only when it expires or is canceled. On June 1, 2017, it was announced that Kelly would launch her first episode of her new NBC news series with an interview of Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
